Two tips from seven years of enthusiastically building DIY pedal kits: First: Get a decent multimeter and measure your resistors and pots before soldering. While capacitors, ICs and transistors are labeled clearly, resistors have a color code which can be misread easily. I had a number of cases where a resistor was hand-labeled a certain value as part of the kit but the actual value (and of course the color code too) was different. This happens very easily, better double check. Also measure your pots, I had some broken ones which didn't conduct at one of the pins. This brings me to second: After wiring up your pots, measure the pots again. This is the number one error in my builds. Heat or slight bending of the legs seems to damage them easily. I have never ever destroyed even tiny SMD transistors but had multiple pots fail me. These things are more fragile than they look... However the fix is simple: When you have identified the pin which doesn't make a proper connection to the resistive trace, take some pointy pliers and pinch the grommet which connects the pin, forcing it to dig into the resistive trace, making contact again. Happy building!
I measure the resistors and capacitors, diodes long before the build and anything in my drawer has been measured. (if the resistors are in 200, sheet I do about 20 and mark the last one done) saves a lot of time. 80% of all issues are related to wiring. of the remaining 20%, 80% of that is the soldering.
Just built my first pedal with my 11 year old, and learned the lesson about pots and heat the hard way. Fortunately I also learned the lesson about fixing them.
Hi Paul, I’ve just bought a kit from you and started a fantastic hobby. Absolutely loving it so far. Your videos have been a godsend.. great work and thanks.
When I first started I was watching just pedal builders. Bad mistake. Most of them don't know crap about electronics. So I started from the ground up and started watching videos about electronics. Learning everything I can. Helped me tremendously. I would advise people who watch pedal building videos to take it with a grain of salt.
Yeah, the very first Pedal I built had this problem. I kinda rushed it, it didn't work, I was frustrated and put it away. After several months I got myself to take it apart and check it and it was just a grounding issue. Now it's working and the enclosure finally got painted. Your tips helped me a lot there!
Just wanted to say thanks for your videos. I watched many of your videos while building my first pedal, the neovibe. So I finally hooked everything up and it got this horrible messy noise. After looking around, I realized that I had wired the tip and sleeves backwards on the in and out jacks! Jeez! Ive been wiring those jacks for years. Anyway, got them fixed and the circuit came to life and sounds sweet. Now on to getting the enclosure done.
You have stressed this point in your other videos as well and it has helped me to ensure I have a working circuit before finishing. It seems so simple, and yet it’s so easy to get overly excited and want to quickly finish a pedal. Your channel is the best primer for building pedals. I started learning during the pandemic and I’ve learned so much from watching all your videos. Thanks! Keep making more :)
Two more comments: 1) if you’re looking for suggestions, I would love to see some updated versions of some of your video content from many years ago. The content is great, but I feel you might have some new perspective to add to those that will help. Or maybe share additional modifications and explorations into your seven minute fuzz. I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation on my own as well as researching. It’s fun because the circuit is so simple, there’s so much potential to explore. And I think you probably have some good insight into that on top of the mods you’ve already shared. 2) personally, because I appreciate what you have contributed to the DIY building community, I want to support what you do. Even though I enjoy building Circuit boards from scratch, I plan to order some of your PCBs. As an educator myself, I always appreciate a good teacher and I think your delivery is informative and accessible to beginners like me. Thanks!
Before watching... untested components before soldering faulty component on; drilling holes wrong way around, or the input/output jack holes too high or low, or not enough room for the power jack at the top; wrong pots in the wrong places, or backward soldered pots; soldering wire but not running enough length from the pcb for the switch and hardware. After watching... yep, testing is critical! I made a pcb-less pedal with all hardware that ran alligator leads out of the pedal to use as a tester - I made it as if there was a PCB that the wires would attach to, but made the wire much longer and threw alligator clips on the ends. The alligator clips clip to the wires soldered on to in, out, +v, -v, making the whole thing operate as a functioning pedal.
i highly recommend checking fit on everything before drilling the power connector. i've had to toss a few enclosures because the power jack wouldnt fit where the template was marked for it
I just came across your videos! Great advice! I began building pedals about 10 months ago and one of my first projects was making a test rig. It sports input/output jacks, master volume, bypass toggle switch, pilot lamp, test probe-style power supply inputs (from home-built 9VDC/0-24VDC filtered power supply), alligator clips, and plenty of extra holes for pots and switches. The only failures I've had were when I got too cocky and didn't test before mounting in an enclosure, lol. I'm primarily building treble/power boosters based on an electronics magazine article from the '60s, but have expanded that into fuzz/distortion territory, as well as a few Rangemaster-based and LPB-1-based boosters and distortion pedals. I'm experimenting with NPN/PNP silicon and germanium (many pulled out of defunct transistor radios and tape players), and FETs, and making my own Fenderesque eyelet boards, not using PCBs. In general I'm a guitar-to-cable-to-amp kind of guy and don't care for pedals, but they're a blast to build and test!
@@swainscheps I didn’t go by any particular design, just basically put all the pedal hardware in an open chassis (about 6”x6”x6”). There’s four hookup alligator clips for V+, In, Out, and Ground, and a long 8/32 machine screw, with a nylon sleeve, to hold the circuit board.
Great video! As always, very informative and full of helpful content. I've been soldering guitar electronics for 10+ years and apparently still have a ton of neat tricks to learn. Thank you!
Had trouble with my first pedal. Was working, got it all together, then wasnt working, after looking for a few minutes. it was a bad solder joint, that the joint/solder ball was actually (way) too big and was touching the metal of my pedal grounding out the whole circuit. If something like this happens to you, id first check all your solder joints closely, and then check to make sure you got each component going to where its suppose to be going, (and facing the correct direction)
I have built guitar pedals and valve amps in the past. Recently I built a pedal and it worked quite well out of the enclosure but in the enclosure it was oscillating. It did have one of those max chips taht boost the voltage to 18V but it was the S version with the boost frequency outside the audio range. I think the issue was a ground loop. So I have some questions. A lot of jacks ground to the chassis. Pots too. The supply was isolated but not the jacks. Would isolated jacks solve that issue? I guess the enclosure should act as a faraday cage shield tied to ground at one point and non isolated jacks can cause ground loop issue or something?
I have recently build my first pedal and your videos helped a ton! Tested everything on a breadboard and separately the PCB (no problems), but in the enclosure it got noisy. I checked everything with a multimeter (grounding, solder joints). No idea where the problem is. Any idea?
Just been watching some of your videos for some inspiration as I'm just about to build my first fuzz pedal. I was just looking for some advice. I bought a kit that says its for silicon transistors. I was wondering what would l need to change in the circuit to change from silicon to germanium? Thanks from the 🇬🇧
I would like to build a tester box but I haven't begun to simplify out the common denominators so I just stick with testing on the breadboard. I use breadboard friendly trim pots, leds and jack daughter boards that I built and wire the circuit to it using any means necessary 😅 (I leave out the bypass footswitch). If I were more versed in EE and maths I would simply test the transistor/op amp nodes for the proper voltage --- but I am terrible at maths. 🤕
I taught myself node analysis through CZcams videos and basically banging my head against a wall for ~16 hours. Drank coffee through the whole night and finally got it at 0800 the next day. I feel your pain.
I tried to build a Angry Charlie V3, but has no sound, LED works, bypass ok, but when I turn on the footswitch my pedal don't work, I will try to resolder, Any tip for my try so solve, I'm really frustrated.
I have a 1999 Digitech RP2000 processor/pedal board and the surface keeps rusting around the patch/stomp pedals. When I remove the rust, the paint comes off. If you look at a pic, the 3 and 4 patch numbers and the blue arrow/shape designs on those pedals as well as the word "bypass" and line under those patches. I don't really wish to spend more than $20-30 on a junked one on line, most of those have issues with their paint as well. I wish to have a recommendation on a rust remover/magic eraser?? or pad as well as a type of paint/decal to replace. Thanks for any help. Don in Chicago, Illinois area.
I recently put together my first pedal (Wish Fuzz). I did the ultimate bad move by plugging the power in, saw the LED light up, and then clicked the pedal button with my thumb and held the bottom of the pcb with my hand. Immediately the led went out. I then put it together to try it connected to a guitar. Bypass works of course. But engaged nothing. Taking it apart again there is a strong burnt electronics smell. Is it likely I shorted the circuit indefinitely by touching the bottom of the pcb while powered? Is there any noobs guide to troubleshooting the circuit?
hey i was wondering if a can use a simple metal enclosure for my diy pedal, and not an aluminium one.. There is a chance of failure if i use a metal one?
I have a problem with a Tube Screamer from Tayda Electronics,at which I can't get an answer from or my money back!!!!!!!!!! parts C5 and C6 call for a 220n but they are too big to fit in the slot ,please help!!!!! Craig Lessard, Thanx
The best tool I find in troubleshooting is an audio probe, built a simple one early on my pedal building journey and it’s been the best tool I have in troubleshooting besides a multimeter. Highly recommend to anyone interested in building pedals to build a simple audio probe. @Paul you should do a video on a simple diy audio probe 😀
Agreed Vivek! Mate, i have a video on everything pedal related :D (admittedly a bit old, could probably use an update): czcams.com/video/jWvIfDSxbIk/video.html
It's always the grounding that I screw up. Always. Although, the other day I fried a power jack somehow. Never had that happen before. Looked normal but the connection between ground and the battery positive somehow fused inside the jack and the 9v battery got hot. Yipes
There is a switching mechanism inside the DC jack, it probably failed. If you havent seen inside one before check this video out: czcams.com/video/BFOIyax38IM/video.html
Suggestion: use an amp you really don’t care about for testing. I learned that when diagnosing amps and pulling the signal,out of different stages to locate a problem.
I'm just about to start my first pedal, and one thing I'm kind of worried about going in is if I could damage my amp or guitar if I accidentally connect my pedal incorrectly, by sending too much current into them or something like that. Is that something I need to worry about when testing?
i bought a crappy cheap combo amp from a pawn shop for like $25 just for testing my pedals. on the off chance i do screw something up, i wouldn’t wanna damage my very expensive amps!
No PCB should be "component mounted" as most are...wiring should be a minimum and dressed, and all pedals should also be fully tested after it is finished before packaging.
Two tips from seven years of enthusiastically building DIY pedal kits: First: Get a decent multimeter and measure your resistors and pots before soldering. While capacitors, ICs and transistors are labeled clearly, resistors have a color code which can be misread easily. I had a number of cases where a resistor was hand-labeled a certain value as part of the kit but the actual value (and of course the color code too) was different. This happens very easily, better double check. Also measure your pots, I had some broken ones which didn't conduct at one of the pins.
This brings me to second: After wiring up your pots, measure the pots again. This is the number one error in my builds. Heat or slight bending of the legs seems to damage them easily. I have never ever destroyed even tiny SMD transistors but had multiple pots fail me. These things are more fragile than they look... However the fix is simple: When you have identified the pin which doesn't make a proper connection to the resistive trace, take some pointy pliers and pinch the grommet which connects the pin, forcing it to dig into the resistive trace, making contact again.
Happy building!
I measure the resistors and capacitors, diodes long before the build and anything in my drawer has been measured. (if the resistors are in 200, sheet I do about 20 and mark the last one done) saves a lot of time. 80% of all issues are related to wiring. of the remaining 20%, 80% of that is the soldering.
Just built my first pedal with my 11 year old, and learned the lesson about pots and heat the hard way. Fortunately I also learned the lesson about fixing them.
Hi Paul, I’ve just bought a kit from you and started a fantastic hobby. Absolutely loving it so far. Your videos have been a godsend.. great work and thanks.
Thanks Michael, appreciate the feedback and support. If you need anything drop me a line through the store contact us page. Cheers mate
I absolutely love the way you present "knowing what you need", "knowing what to expect".
When I first started I was watching just pedal builders. Bad mistake. Most of them don't know crap about electronics.
So I started from the ground up and started watching videos about electronics. Learning everything I can.
Helped me tremendously.
I would advise people who watch pedal building videos to take it with a grain of salt.
Yeah, the very first Pedal I built had this problem. I kinda rushed it, it didn't work, I was frustrated and put it away. After several months I got myself to take it apart and check it and it was just a grounding issue. Now it's working and the enclosure finally got painted. Your tips helped me a lot there!
Hey Paul, good to have you back. Thanks for the vid. Peter
Just wanted to say thanks for your videos. I watched many of your videos while building my first pedal, the neovibe. So I finally hooked everything up and it got this horrible messy noise. After looking around, I realized that I had wired the tip and sleeves backwards on the in and out jacks! Jeez! Ive been wiring those jacks for years. Anyway, got them fixed and the circuit came to life and sounds sweet. Now on to getting the enclosure done.
You have stressed this point in your other videos as well and it has helped me to ensure I have a working circuit before finishing. It seems so simple, and yet it’s so easy to get overly excited and want to quickly finish a pedal. Your channel is the best primer for building pedals. I started learning during the pandemic and I’ve learned so much from watching all your videos. Thanks! Keep making more :)
Two more comments: 1) if you’re looking for suggestions, I would love to see some updated versions of some of your video content from many years ago. The content is great, but I feel you might have some new perspective to add to those that will help. Or maybe share additional modifications and explorations into your seven minute fuzz. I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation on my own as well as researching. It’s fun because the circuit is so simple, there’s so much potential to explore. And I think you probably have some good insight into that on top of the mods you’ve already shared. 2) personally, because I appreciate what you have contributed to the DIY building community, I want to support what you do. Even though I enjoy building Circuit boards from scratch, I plan to order some of your PCBs. As an educator myself, I always appreciate a good teacher and I think your delivery is informative and accessible to beginners like me. Thanks!
I'm glad I took your advice. Tested my first build today and it seemed low output. Turns out i switched the placement between 2 of the 5 pots.
Before watching... untested components before soldering faulty component on; drilling holes wrong way around, or the input/output jack holes too high or low, or not enough room for the power jack at the top; wrong pots in the wrong places, or backward soldered pots; soldering wire but not running enough length from the pcb for the switch and hardware.
After watching... yep, testing is critical! I made a pcb-less pedal with all hardware that ran alligator leads out of the pedal to use as a tester - I made it as if there was a PCB that the wires would attach to, but made the wire much longer and threw alligator clips on the ends. The alligator clips clip to the wires soldered on to in, out, +v, -v, making the whole thing operate as a functioning pedal.
i highly recommend checking fit on everything before drilling the power connector. i've had to toss a few enclosures because the power jack wouldnt fit where the template was marked for it
Great video! I built a test box for my builds. It also includes a probe for tracing any faults too! Time well spent..
I just came across your videos! Great advice! I began building pedals about 10 months ago and one of my first projects was making a test rig. It sports input/output jacks, master volume, bypass toggle switch, pilot lamp, test probe-style power supply inputs (from home-built 9VDC/0-24VDC filtered power supply), alligator clips, and plenty of extra holes for pots and switches. The only failures I've had were when I got too cocky and didn't test before mounting in an enclosure, lol.
I'm primarily building treble/power boosters based on an electronics magazine article from the '60s, but have expanded that into fuzz/distortion territory, as well as a few Rangemaster-based and LPB-1-based boosters and distortion pedals. I'm experimenting with NPN/PNP silicon and germanium (many pulled out of defunct transistor radios and tape players), and FETs, and making my own Fenderesque eyelet boards, not using PCBs.
In general I'm a guitar-to-cable-to-amp kind of guy and don't care for pedals, but they're a blast to build and test!
Did you follow a particular schematic for your test pedal? Or did you just wing it?
@@swainscheps I didn’t go by any particular design, just basically put all the pedal hardware in an open chassis (about 6”x6”x6”). There’s four hookup alligator clips for V+, In, Out, and Ground, and a long 8/32 machine screw, with a nylon sleeve, to hold the circuit board.
Great video! As always, very informative and full of helpful content. I've been soldering guitar electronics for 10+ years and apparently still have a ton of neat tricks to learn. Thank you!
Had trouble with my first pedal. Was working, got it all together, then wasnt working, after looking for a few minutes. it was a bad solder joint, that the joint/solder ball was actually (way) too big and was touching the metal of my pedal grounding out the whole circuit.
If something like this happens to you, id first check all your solder joints closely, and then check to make sure you got each component going to where its suppose to be going, (and facing the correct direction)
I test each component to verify values during inventory of parts. Much easier to find a bad cap or resistor now than after it's soldered together.
I have built guitar pedals and valve amps in the past. Recently I built a pedal and it worked quite well out of the enclosure but in the enclosure it was oscillating. It did have one of those max chips taht boost the voltage to 18V but it was the S version with the boost frequency outside the audio range. I think the issue was a ground loop. So I have some questions. A lot of jacks ground to the chassis. Pots too. The supply was isolated but not the jacks. Would isolated jacks solve that issue? I guess the enclosure should act as a faraday cage shield tied to ground at one point and non isolated jacks can cause ground loop issue or something?
Could you make a video on wire gauges? I dont know which type to get
I have recently build my first pedal and your videos helped a ton! Tested everything on a breadboard and separately the PCB (no problems), but in the enclosure it got noisy. I checked everything with a multimeter (grounding, solder joints). No idea where the problem is. Any idea?
Just been watching some of your videos for some inspiration as I'm just about to build my first fuzz pedal. I was just looking for some advice. I bought a kit that says its for silicon transistors. I was wondering what would l need to change in the circuit to change from silicon to germanium? Thanks from the 🇬🇧
I would like to build a tester box but I haven't begun to simplify out the common denominators so I just stick with testing on the breadboard. I use breadboard friendly trim pots, leds and jack daughter boards that I built and wire the circuit to it using any means necessary 😅 (I leave out the bypass footswitch). If I were more versed in EE and maths I would simply test the transistor/op amp nodes for the proper voltage --- but I am terrible at maths. 🤕
I taught myself node analysis through CZcams videos and basically banging my head against a wall for ~16 hours. Drank coffee through the whole night and finally got it at 0800 the next day. I feel your pain.
Heh ... the only pain is when I do something stupid or risky and have to figure out #1 what is wrong #2 how to fix it .... or burn myself xD
Gonna be building a pedal soon guess I better start watching your videos and learn hahaha
I tried to build a Angry Charlie V3, but has no sound, LED works, bypass ok, but when I turn on the footswitch my pedal don't work, I will try to resolder, Any tip for my try so solve, I'm really frustrated.
I have a 1999 Digitech RP2000 processor/pedal board and the surface keeps rusting around the patch/stomp pedals. When I remove the rust, the paint comes off. If you look at a pic, the 3 and 4 patch numbers and the blue arrow/shape designs on those pedals as well as the word "bypass" and line under those patches. I don't really wish to spend more than $20-30 on a junked one on line, most of those have issues with their paint as well. I wish to have a recommendation on a rust remover/magic eraser?? or pad as well as a type of paint/decal to replace. Thanks for any help.
Don in Chicago, Illinois area.
I recently put together my first pedal (Wish Fuzz). I did the ultimate bad move by plugging the power in, saw the LED light up, and then clicked the pedal button with my thumb and held the bottom of the pcb with my hand. Immediately the led went out. I then put it together to try it connected to a guitar. Bypass works of course. But engaged nothing. Taking it apart again there is a strong burnt electronics smell. Is it likely I shorted the circuit indefinitely by touching the bottom of the pcb while powered? Is there any noobs guide to troubleshooting the circuit?
hey i was wondering if a can use a simple metal enclosure for my diy pedal, and not an aluminium one..
There is a chance of failure if i use a metal one?
I have a problem with a Tube Screamer from Tayda Electronics,at which I can't get an answer from or my money back!!!!!!!!!! parts C5 and C6 call for a 220n but they are too big to fit in the slot ,please help!!!!! Craig Lessard, Thanx
I just bought my first pedal and put the battery in but it won’t turn on (Behringer OD bass pedal)
The best tool I find in troubleshooting is an audio probe, built a simple one early on my pedal building journey and it’s been the best tool I have in troubleshooting besides a multimeter. Highly recommend to anyone interested in building pedals to build a simple audio probe. @Paul you should do a video on a simple diy audio probe 😀
Agreed Vivek! Mate, i have a video on everything pedal related :D (admittedly a bit old, could probably use an update): czcams.com/video/jWvIfDSxbIk/video.html
Me too. Literally the best tool I have ever built!
This video is helpfull, i'm not frustated again 😅
Another great video! Thanks.
It's always the grounding that I screw up. Always. Although, the other day I fried a power jack somehow. Never had that happen before. Looked normal but the connection between ground and the battery positive somehow fused inside the jack and the 9v battery got hot. Yipes
There is a switching mechanism inside the DC jack, it probably failed. If you havent seen inside one before check this video out: czcams.com/video/BFOIyax38IM/video.html
This was a great help, thanks!
#rockb4ubox !!! Love you man. You’ve been so helpful since I started
Suggestion: use an amp you really don’t care about for testing. I learned that when diagnosing amps and pulling the signal,out of different stages to locate a problem.
I'm just about to start my first pedal, and one thing I'm kind of worried about going in is if I could damage my amp or guitar if I accidentally connect my pedal incorrectly, by sending too much current into them or something like that. Is that something I need to worry about when testing?
i bought a crappy cheap combo amp from a pawn shop for like $25 just for testing my pedals. on the off chance i do screw something up, i wouldn’t wanna damage my very expensive amps!
No PCB should be "component mounted" as most are...wiring should be a minimum and dressed, and all pedals should also be fully tested after it is finished before packaging.
Hey bro you amazing I love your videos..
Hey is there a way to get into building pedals that DONT use pcb's and instead all single components handwired?
There are breadboard pedals
I believe that’s called point-to-point wiring. not so common any more but nothing wrong with it.
Thank you so much for the solid info, its greatly appreciated.
how about making a tutorial about boss / jfet switching style . how to diagnose / repair
so much this...Rock before you box...
Hi. Can I make a pedal using a mini protoboard?
the most common mistakes in fuzz faces is people forgetting to connect the fuzz pot to Q2. its a surprisingly simple and common mistake
I'm just breaking my head against the wallet with a shitty Landtone pedal because of this reason